cc licensed flickr photo shared by William Brawley

MBA degrees are no longer an automatic ticket to corporate success. MBAs have become more common and corporations are demanding increasingly complex skill sets from them. Here are four technologies every MBA should master in order to help their companies succeed and to improve their own chances for career advancement.

Social Media
Social media has moved front and center in the way we communicate. In the past, social media meant trendy social sites for teens and blogs for adults. Now it includes Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and much more.

Social media knowledge is important to an MBA because they must learn how to harness it to meet corporation marketing and communication goals. On a personal level, sites like LinkedIn have permeated human resource departments. MBAs must master this and similar sites to propel their career forward.

Mobile Computing
The next wave of marketing and business is in your hands – your smart phone and tablet computer. Mobile computing has swept through the personal computer world, obliterating everything in its path. Unless MBAs understand and can apply multiple computing technologies to their company’s goals, they will be left behind.

In the fourth quarter of 2010, more smart phones were shipped than personal computers. That trend will not only continue, it will accelerate. Mobile is the future of computing. MBAs must be comfortable understanding and applying mobile computing principles in order to succeed.

Cloud Computing
Along with the shift to smart phones and tablet computers, cloud computing will continue to skyrocket in growth. Cheap data storage and transfer has allowed companies like Amazon and their S3 service to provide cloud computing at low-cost to end-users and corporations. Consumers and companies are moving away from dedicated standalone computer programs to mobile apps that access their data in the cloud. Some companies are shaping their entire IT structure around data delivered via cloud computing.

Major software firms like Salesforce.com conduct all of their data access in the cloud. MBAs must be knowledgeable about cloud computing concepts and be able to communicate its advantages to clients and company superiors. The future is in the cloud, and only those MBAs that can show their corporations the benefits and how to take advantage of them will prosper in the coming years.

Financial Analysis
MBAs should know tools like Microsoft Excel and their dedicated financial calculator like the back of their hand. Finance is the language of business. Not knowing financial analysis technology is like not knowing how to speak to someone in their language.

In addition, MBAs should be able to calculate a SWOT analysis at the drop of a hat. Ideally, they can breakdown their ideas and present them clearly in PowerPoint presentation, PDF documents and even short videos. Quick financial analysis derived from cutting-edge tools, clear presentation of ideas based on sound business principles, and proper follow-up and monitoring will separate the top MBAs from the also-rans.

Corporations turn to MBAs for leadership, quantitative analysis, and communication skills. To prosper in the coming years, MBAs must also master social media, mobile computing, cloud computing, and financial analysis technologies.

Charles Brooks is a business administrator and guest author at BestMastersDegrees.com, where he contributed to the guide to the Top 20 Value Online MBA Programs.